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So I have been wanting to fix a drainage problem on my friends property but I wasn't sure but today the wet weather has confirmed my suspicion.
The property is a sloping block
The water runs down from the highest point on the block and is surface water that turns into 3 main streams. The heaviest of the 3 runs down the south side of the block fence line and the garden alongside the fence has been washed out many times.
The first and second water flow runs into a entertainment area making lots of mess and fortunately there is a drain that was blocked today by the abundance of garden matter, luckily we were home to unblock the drain or we may have had a flood through the house itself.
I created a little dam to stop most of the water going into the entertainment area but look at the amount of water on the path and the garden behind the Besser block wall is submerged.
So what I want to do is run a drainage from north to south or across the property backyard before it runs through the living area. I though a spoon drain would suffice but that's a lot of water and what about garden foliage blocking?
I looked at the building plans and found that the drain from the entertainment area runs underground along the south side fence line and I want to run the spoon drain into this piping system to the roadway.
The drain is the dash line from the space open private down along the south side fence to a detention basin before running onto the roadway.
This would in my opinion take the surface water from the backyard to the roadway drainage.
Watching the drain in the entertainment area was unsettling as the garden foliage block the drain and I would like to get some opinions on which type of drainage would be better and yes I will be doing this myself and will pave the clothes line area, regain the southside fence garden by replacing all the washed away soil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nod1fCw5tJM
Amazing work @Kvic! You've really put in the hard effort to achieve some wonderful results.
I'm sure there is more to come, but you should feel very accomplished with what you have achieved so far.
Well done.
Mitchell
Thanks Mitchell and the women is happy too.
I have a question about his photo
So I have plans of digging behind the taller Besser block wall as the drainage that was put in the upper backyard isn't stopping all the water leaking through the step area and into the entertainment area. This is a snippet of the video I posted and above the loose bricks on the garden Besser block wall there is a pin hole with water spurting out. The drainage is 1.5mtr higher up that the higher Besser block wall and so there has to be some water coming to the higher wall and under the steps the water is coming through the back corner of the wall where different Besser block change direction and the walls meet together.
So I want to put a 100mm hole in the Besser wall at the bottom under the stairs so the water from behind that taller wall is collected through another drain pipe to come out under the step and then a water pit that runs across in front of the steps to collect all the water from the wall drain and the water that comes out from the back wall to be collected and then cut a passage with a grate cover along where the bricks are on the inside to the other edge of the concrete block to then travel to and intersect with the first drain pipe system where both pipes will be connected to the 100mm street rain water system near the front door.
This garden bed was full to the top of water and I don't feel that this water was rain water from the sky only but where could that water come from?
Will I need another hole in the garden bed to be collected by the rain pit?
I think I need to drain all the water so as to limited the moss growth and stop most of the water going into the entertainment area for the heath of the Besser blocks and then the salt stains should go along with some heavy moss around the bottom of the Besser block walls
Your besser block wall has cut down into the soil and blocked the natural flow of subsurface water @Kvic. Some water runs down on the surface on a sloped block, and some soaks in. In your case, you are seeing both the surface and subsurface water running down the slope and hitting the back of the block wall. The water then fills up behind it and flows over the top, and the leak you see is just an easy route for the water to escape. You'll likely find that this subsurface water is soaking into the soil on the higher side property to yours and flowing underground until it hits your retaining wall. So, the water behind your wall is likely not just from the rain that's fallen above your property but all the collected subsurface water from the surrounding properties as well.
If you wish to capture the water from behind the walls, you'll need to install drainage within them or add ports at the bottom of each wall to allow the water to drain.
Mitchell
May last year I started this project to overcome the problems of water drainage from the backyard and lay drainage pipe across the yard as displayed above.
Last night was very heavy night of rain and I have to stay the drainage pipe failed.
This is water from the backyard pooling above the drain and sitting there going NOT through the drain pipe but flowing underground to the steps and thought the separation between the Besser blocks under the stair case.
There has been an update to the backyard over the last month with a addition to top of the stairs
Yesterday was the first time I have seen water come out of the drain pipe as the drain above the stairs was connected to that drain pipe.
This is what happen last night around 3am
The water coming from the back yard pool above the ground where the drain pipe was laid and has never shown any water coming out of the end of that drain pipe which was to be connected to the house flood water pipe just a metre away. The drain I added to the top of the stair was the first time I had seen water coming out of the drain pipe.
I will have to place a surface drain pipe across the yard and then pipe it directly down the side of the side to the flood water pipe system of the house.
Don't feel too demoralised @Kvic. If this was the same downpour we experienced in Sydney, I don't think any amount of drainage would have been able to cope with it. We were totally flooded out here.
That last image shows a tremendous amount of water, and no amount of pipework could have carried that away for you.
How the drainage coping under normal conditions?
Mitchell
Evening @Kvic
I second @MitchellMc "Dont be too discoraged" Seriously we had a LOT of water and the peak was around 3am as far as I know.
The drainage that you have installed is to take away excess wayter but not necasarily "inundation" as I call it I like the idea of of a drain across the top to take away surface water you mentioned. How "burried" is that drain pipe you installed that normally dosnt show water coming out of it?
The Stormwater rectification I did had two parts, the stormwater from the roof via the downpipes plus the surface water from my yard and the neigbours that flows into my yard. The quantity of water that came down was imense, I have flow lines around all my holding ponds, berms and even my culvert. Something I had planned for but didnt think would happen or get used really. Maybe you just need to add a drain ditch/grate type deal to capture the runoff for events like last Friday night? Best part is you get to try another idea 
frustrating yeah but You are definently closer to having it sorted.
Looking at your photos for the second/third time How far under the ground is your drain pipe and is it covered in gravel or dirt? I am wondering that maybe it is blocked? Can you push a hose up or down the pipe?
Dave
